Working Hard or Hardly Working?

They said that on Modern Family tonight, and I kind of laughed out loud. Gets me every time. I was in fact working hard tonight. I just finished a p90x workout, Plyometrics.  A lot of my friends have been doing p90x for a while now, and my sister and our friend Renee recently asked me to burn them copies of the workouts onto dvds, so I figured maybe I would give some of the workouts a try. For over a year the only physical activity I've done regularly is running.  I used to be in the gym all the time, but I don't have a gym membership and just haven't gotten into anything besides running for a while. I don't think this is the right time for me to start the program 100%, but maybe at some point when I am not training for a race and am a little stronger I will go for it. In the meantime, I think I'll try the different workouts and see what they are about.

Plyometrics is a high intensity workout with A LOT of jumping and squats.  It is used to increase speed and explosiveness. It was an hour long and about 10 minutes in, my heart was pumping! I went at about 75% intensity through the whole thing so I could get the hang of the moves and because my ankle is bothering me a little since my VFF run yesterday. There is one move, "hot feet," which I couldn't really do with my ankle and soreness. You go on one foot and hop in a cross pattern for 30 seconds and then switch feet. It was definitely tough, and if you really go for it on every move, it could be killer.

I really liked it though. You do different moves for 30 second intervals and then move onto something else. I liked the sports sequence where you do moves like you are pitching a baseball, shooting a jumpshot and some sort of football thing. The interval set up is great and Tony Horton keeps reminding you that you can do anything for 30 seconds, and he made me believe it. I can't wait to try to other workouts, BUT maybe not until Friday because tomorrow's run might be a killer.

Mmmm Cookies

So I'm really craving a cookie from Levain Bakery. These are seriously delicious cookies and one of my favorite things to eat in the world, even if I don't get them often. Unfortunately, I live in Philadelphia, and Levain cookies live in the Upper West Side in Levain Bakery (and during the summer my beloved Wainscott in East Hampton). They are huge and soft and rich and delicious. For those of you familiar with Tates cookies (another favorite from Southampton), they are the opposite of the crunchy thin Tates that you could easily eat a few of.

Tates are on the left and a Levain cookie on the right. They are both seriously delicious, but serve different purposes in my opinion, or at least they feed different cravings.

Anyway, I have no idea why I was craving these particular cookies. I haven't had that many of them in my life, and the last one I had was probably in June, so why did they pop into my head? I also don't often have serious cravings. I have ideas, like, 'oooh I think I'll make Thai curry tonight!' But, not too many cravings. Although, I always seem to want something yummy once a week during the Biggest Loser. Does this happen to anyone else? It's weird because you would think you would want to skip the cookies and do jumping jacks while chewing Extra gum during Biggest Loser. But season after season, I watch this show, cry with contestants, am happy and proud for them, and crave cookies.

Today's craving was random and serious though. I had just come back from a run and was hungry for dinner. I had cereal. Maybe it's a good thing that Levain cookies don't live in Philadelphia, but if anyone wants to send me some, please do! My favorites are Chocolate Chip Walnut and Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip. Yum!

VFF Update

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've had one of those weeks where you always feel busy, but you're not actually being productive. But don't you worry, I'm back and ready to blog.

It's been exactly one month and a day since I first got my VFFs, and since my last update, there is a lot to tell. Even though I tried to judge running in VFFs with a critical eye, I couldn't help myself and drank the kool aid early on. I sang the praises and convinced myself that I would make a quick transition and change my life. Unfortunately, since week 2 of running in minimalist shoes and blissful runs, it hasn't been that easy. I don't really have bad things to say about VFFs (the kool aid is still pulsing through my veins) - it's more so that the woes of the transition are catching up with me. So my VFF saga continues...

Early On
I wrote about a great run a had a in VFFs a few weeks ago.  Early on, it was quick to notice the positives:

1. They're light weight - You wouldn't think it makes a huge difference, but it really does. I originally bought my Nike Lunar Trainers (which aren't manufactured anymore) because they were so lightweight. My feet felt light and fast so I bought two pairs. Those weigh 7.1 ounces in my size. My KSOs weigh in at 4.7 ounces. I felt more free and like I'm gliding in these light-weight shoes, especially when I'm sprinting.
2. Uphills feel a thousand percent better
3. The burn in all the right places - I felt the burn, and I liked it. My calves felt like they were awakened after years of lazy running.
4. And best of all - it wasn't hurting as much as I thought it would. All I read was how much it would hurt at first and how hard the transition is, but in the beginning it felt better than I thought it would. Ryan hobbled around the apt in pain the first week, which further highlighted my relative lack of pain.

The PAIN!
Many differences were very noticible in the beginning, but at some point, many of the benefits stop being novel. I got used to the weight of them, so although it strikes me now and then how light and unencumbered my feet feel, it is my norm. Similarly, hills don't feel as easy as they used to. My biggest problem is number 4 on my positive list. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would in the beginning, so I jumped right in and after about a week and ran in my VFFs 100% of the time for 100% of the distance. Big No-No! Week 3 hit me hard with some serious pains.

I started getting some top of the foot pain every now and then. (Apparently I need to keep up with my pose drills better to get rid of this problem.) It was annoying, but I could work through the pain because it was not often and not too intense. But last week, I was running and somewhere around mile 2, it felt like something clamped down on my left calf and ankle. My KSO also felt too tight on the top of my left foot. I loosened the strap, adjusted my leggings, stretched out a bit and kept going. I finished my run (probably should not have), but my leg felt tight and uncomfortable the rest of the way, and after I finished I limped home and hobbled up to my 3rd floor walk-up. I felt better after some stretching, icing and a hot shower. So I gave myself an extra day of rest and went back out for a run in VFFs again. I set my Nike+ to 45 minutes and took off as usual, but again, about 20 minutes in my left calf tightened. I kept going (because I had already run a couple miles away from my house), but had to take it very easy to avoid that tightening feeling in my muscles. I was starting to realize at that point, that maybe the woes of transitioning to a minimalist shoe were not over and maybe were just begining for me. Many VFF experts suggest 4-6 months for your transition to VFFs from modern running shoes.

Shod (that's right, it means I wore shoes)
After admitting that I would still have to work on this transition, I went on my next run in my Nikes. No foot pain, no calf pain, but I actually had a little shin pain. I was relatively pain-free, but I felt a little clunky and weighted down. My feet also felt bound. My toes missed the freedom of individual sockets and felt a little smushed. It also didn't feel as good in my legs and feet, like my muscles weren't all working. But for that day, it was worth it to avoid the calf pain.

An article in Runner's World suggested that you use VFFs only as a training tool and not all the time. If the pain continues in VFFs over some time, I might have to use them in conjunction with modern running shoes. But, for the next few months I plan on doing everything I can to make VFFs work for me and become the best runner I can be.

Barefoot!!! 
So after a shod run, I went back to VFFs for a run. Inbetween, I did a little research on minimalist and barefoot running blogs and forums, and many people expressed similar pains. Beyond giving it time and transitioning more slowly, most people seemed to say working on your form would help get rid of the pain. And the best way to perfect your form in foot gloves? Run barefoot.

BAREFOOT!?!?! I live in a city. A dirty city. I thought the whole reason I bought these things was to avoid actually being barefoot. But, I understand it - the sensory feedback you get from running barefoot tells you quickly how you are landing, and this will lead to a good natural form. Seriously though, I scoff at drunk girls who walk on the sidewalks at night, heels in hand, so could I really put my bare, naked foot on the filth that is Center City Philadelphia? YES - because if there is one thing that competitive sports has taught me over the years, it is that you can't get better without leaving your comfort zone sometimes.

So I went out for a VFF run on the Schuykill River Trail, a paved path which is generally clean of debris, much less walked on than the sidewalks and clear of car sludge. I figured I would do a VFF run this time and maybe next time I would go barefoot. I felt okay, good even. And after 40 minutes with only about a half mile to get back to the starting point, I felt compelled to shed my ugly gorilla feet and  go bare. I took off with VFFs in hand and ended my Nike+ workout (obviously there is no place to put the sensor). I thought it would hurt, but it didn't. The smooth path felt cool on my feet, and I found it surprisingly easy to run light and easy. No pain. 5 minutes later I was at the beginning of the path and felt fine. This is something I could do again, and I honestly think it will help with my form. I don't know how to explain why I think that based on my few minutes of running barefoot, but it felt good and I'm willing to try it.

The Unforseen Problem
I got back to the starting point and ran up to Ryan, who was stretching and waiting for me, and proudly held out my VFFs to show that I ran barefoot. I was pretty happy with myself, but wanted to go home immediately to get in the shower and get the city off my feet. BUT, there was a problem. I didn't think of it. I start running a few blocks away from my apartment. I still had to walk home over gravel, a train track, on real city sidewalk and across a few streets. When I bravely decided to go barefoot, I thought I could just immediately wash my feet and it would be okay. But I had to get home, and I wasn't about to put my dirty feet back into my shoes to preserve the city grime forever. I had to walk home barefoot. I was that drunken girl walking home barefoot, only I was sober, which only makes it worse. I totally grossed myself out.

On top of it, I got even dirtier looks than I did when I first started wearing VFFs. I felt like every other person on the street and every person driving by in their cars were looking at my bare feet and being disgusted. As a matter of fact, I felt that way while I was running on the path too. In the future, I will run barefoot again, but I think I will bring an old pair of flip flops with me so I can walk home in them.

Since then, I think I've done one shod and one VFF run, both uneventful. For the future, a mix of bare, VFF and shod, but most importantly, a conscious effort to improve my form.

AIM made all the difference

Last week my boyfriend Ryan blogged about how our 3 years one day age difference makes for some interesting differences in our memories growing up, especially relating to technology. I thought I'd like to give my thoughts on it as well. I am 26, and Ryan is 29.

The TV shows we watched and loved were more or less similar, but there are a few of his favorites that I just barely missed out on. Most notably is GI Joe. I have no recollection of ever watching it, but it was one of Ryan's childhood favorites.  He-man and Transformers are a couple others. We had a lot of cartoon crossover though, running from Thundercats to Tiny Toons to Doug. But at some point, he probably started hanging out with friends and watching preteen/teenager shows when I was still stuck in kiddie land. I don't think he watched Are You Afraid of the Dark or All That. And since I have a younger sister, I watched shows Ryan has never heard of, Gullah Gullah Island and Eureka's Castle to name a couple.

Just for kicks, here are some of my favorite shows as a child. (Vote for your childhood favorite on the poll on the right)

So TV was not too too different, but our technology growing up seems to be worlds apart. I don't recall records, and Ryan got records as presents. We both had computers at a fairly young age, but how we used them was definitely different. I used the internet to write research papers in high school. I had the benefit of sparknotes and went online daily both at school and home.  I would pop into the computer lab at school every chance I had to check my email. This was totally not the case for Ryan, who hardly used the internet while he was in high scool.

Ryan mentioned in his blog that he took typing class in middle school on a typewriter. That literally makes me LOL. I didn't just use a computer for my typing classes... I started in 1st grade!!! (Now this is just obviously a difference in schools and location because I was in 1st grade before Ryan was in middle school.) I can't hardly remember a time without typing. I typed papers in middle school and occassionally before that. To this day, Ryan and I type at completely different speeds. I of course touch type and if I'm typing from my head, I easily type well over 100 wpm. I just took one of those typing tests online where you type a passage about tigers and I typed 94 wpm. I'm pretty fast, and I owe it all to one thing, AIM. I started using it around when it came into existance in homes. I spent many many nights typing away to friends I had seen all day at school and friends who lived in different parts of the country. Ryan did not, and despite the typing classes we both took as kids, I still see him glancing down at the keyboard now and then, and I never hear the rapid clicking of keys coming from his computer that I hear all the time from my own. This makes for a real difference in school.  I was able to knock out 10, 20 page papers like they were nothing - my limiting factor was my brain, not my fingers. My blog posts are also about 10 times as long as his.

Ryan and I feel pretty different in age sometimes. Some pretty big things happened while we were young, so the 3 years does make a difference. Of all the things that were different, when we adopted AIM into our lives seems to be the biggest and most impactful difference. I wonder if there is a similar difference in people based on when they joined facebook or when they got their first cell phones or first e-reader.

On a slighly related note, as you might have noticed earlier on, Ryan's and my birthdays are one day apart (9/2 and 9/3), and despite our massive 3 year age difference, our labor day birthdays give us a fair bit of relatability, and I'm not talking about astrology. We share the disappointment of school starting around our birthdays - buying school supplies and being sad about the end of summer overshadowed our birthdays. Never getting to celebrate our birthdays at school with cupcakes because they fall just a hair too early. Always amongst the youngest in our grade, last to turn 13, 16, 18 and the all-important 21. For those of you Superfreakonomics readers out there, you know our birthdays have prevented us from becoming professional hockey players. Our friends' son Julien is 2 years old and was born on September 4, one day after my birthday. Maybe one day we will all bond over our birthdays. Julien is the youngest reader of my blog. Hi Julien!!!

You down with OPP... Other People's Playlists

What do these artists have in common?

They all have at least one song on my running playlist

My legs hurt. I run with no cushioning so sometimes my feet hurt too. I didn't run today, but thinking about tomorrow's Fartlek training makes my legs and feet hurt more. I know I will get through my runs though, and I couldn't do it without my running playlist.

It's amazing how your mental strength can push your body physically. I have always had a pretty good ability to focus and tell myself to push harder or stronger when I felt like I couldn't go anymore or do any better. I personally respond well to people yelling at me too. Give me a coach or trainer screaming at me one-on-one any day. Some people fall apart under that sort of pressure. Some respond well to positive encouragement or general instruction to a group. Different things work for different people - we're all wired differently. It makes sense then, that a person's running (or workout) playlist would be as different from another's playlist as one person is different from another. I know I could never just use someone else's playlist.

I know some people who just play music they like to listen to in general or just upbeat music in general. Not for me. I do look for something upbeat and of course I want music I actually like to listen to, but there has to be something special that makes it work for me. Some songs just make me feel like I could  run forever. Some help me push through the pain. And some songs just make me smile, which is just what I need now and then. Other times I just want my a song to take my mind off of running. Different songs do different things for me, and a good mix of all of those things gives me, well my perfect running mix.

I pretty much use the same running mix every run and tweak it now and then. When I find myself skipping songs more than once, I move that song down the list or off the list. When I hear a new song or forgotten song that strikes a chord with me, I add it and try it. But overall, I have had a similar playlist for running (and cardio) for a while now.

So here it is. It's embarrassing, cheesy at times and geeky and dorky overall, and I feel like by revealing this in this public setting I am somehow being exposed. To be honest, Ryan is the only one who has seen this playlist and even he hasn't seen it all. If you see my running playlist, you might get me too well, and then you might stop reading my blog! Okay enough stalling... here it goes, 29 songs roughly 2 hours:

1. Get Low, Remix (Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz)
2. The Way You Make Me Feel (Michael Jackson)
3. OPP (Naughty By Nature)
4. Fight to Survive - The Kumite Song (Bush Stan)
5. Welcome to the Jungle (Guns N' Roses)
6. Just Dance (Lady Gaga)
7. Just Dance (Jamiroquai)
8. Fighter (Christina Aguilera)
9. Stronger (Britney Spears)
10. Suddenly I See (KT Tunstall)
11. Since You've Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson)
12. Man in the Mirror (Michael Jackson)

13. Where is the Love (Black Eyed Peas feat. Justin Timberlake)
14. School of Rock (from School of Rock Soundtrack)
15. Enter Sandman (Metallica)
16. I Gotta Feeling (Black Eyed Peas)
17. I Want You Back (Jackson 5)
18. Start Me Up (Rolling Stones)
19. Keep on Running (The Spencer Davis Group)
20. Supermodel (Jill Sobule)
21. Come On Over (Christina Aguilera)
22. Rock That Body (Black Eyed Peas)
23. Whatcha Say (Jason Derulo)
24. Run This Town (Jay-Z feat. Kanye & Rihanna)
25. David Duchovny (Bree Sharp)
26. Put Your Records On (Corinne Bailey Rae)
27. Wind (Akeboshi, a theme from Naruto)
28. You're Beautiful (James Blunt)
29. Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole)

So there it is. Completely dorky right? It's wrong at times, I know: Britney Spears and Metallica? Lil' Jon and that Supermodel song from Clueless? The Rolling Stones and about half the Centerstage soundtrack? A song from an anime??? It's a strange combination of songs, but I love it. I don't know what I would do without it.

It's worth noting that I use Nike + Ipod, which allows you to choose a "powersong." You can hold down the center button at any time during your run, and your powersong will come on. Mine is Fight to Survive, the Kumite song. For those of you who don't know, it is from the movie Bloodsport, starring Jean-Claude Van Damm. It is a chant/song about the underground, freestyle fighting competition, the Kumite, featured in the movie. I love Jean-Claude. This song should be the most embarrassing song on my playlist, but I'm not even embarrassed that it is my powersong. It works so well for me that I can't be embarrassed by it. I used to play this song so many times during a run, I might as well have put it on repeat, but lately I haven't been playing it that much. To me, that means that my current playlist is working well for me, and I'm getting mentally stronger.

Don't judge me, but do share your favorite running or workout songs or even your whole playlist in the comments section. I can't wait!

The ever-changing Dorito

In recent years it seems like there is always a new flavor of gum, new candy bar or new flavor snack. I don't remember there being new flavors of snacks or candy all the time when I was a kid. The flavors were more or less set. There was minty gum OR fruity gum, not minty AND fruity. Orange, white, light green, green and red were the tic tac flavors that I remember from when I was a kid through college. Similarly, the only potato chip flavors I knew of were plain, BBQ, sour cream & onion, salt & vinegar, and garlic & onion. Plain M&Ms and peanut. Regular Doritos and the blue bag. BUT, that is not the case anymore. Every time I go into a grocery store or deli there are always plenty of displays of "NEW" flavored junk food. Now this is not a case of "when I was a kid blah blah blah." I know new flavors of things came out before I was a kid, while I was a kid and before I started noticing the trend of "NEW" junk food. New flavors and types of junk food just seem to be out there more and advertised as new a lot more than I remember.

I really like trying new things, so this is a good thing, but also a bad thing because I am shamelessly wooed into buying candy bars and chips that I wouldn't otherwise purchase (or eat). Ryan is even worse. I think he "needs" to try the new flavors more than me and needless to say, we encourage each other to buy and try new foods. I can't explain the feeling because it is not like I am looking for a new candy bar to love, and I don't even really like Doritos, but I am compelled to try the ever-changing new flavors.


What a brilliant tactic by these companies! Not only do they excite their already loyal consumers of their products and catch the eyes of children and adults with flashy displays, they lure new consumers to try their new products. Frito-Lay was never going to have me as a consumer of Doritos, but I don't know how many bags of new flavors I've purchased. I don't make a habit of buying candy in general, but do you even know how many disgusting new flavors of M&Ms (coconut and raspberry were especially bad) I've tried? I have never liked Milky Ways, but guess what? I tried the Milky Way Dark, which is really dumb of me because I don't like nougat and all they did was swap out milk chocolate for dark chocolate. I hated it just as much because the same nougat which made me hate the original was in the NEW dark version. I can't help it though.

Doritos seem to be utilizing this always new tactic quite a bit, and they have been for a long time actually. Remember 3D Doritos? I actually liked those. Anyway, there is always a new flavor Dorito. There were the duo flavor bags, Dorito Collisions: Hot Wings/Blue Cheese, Zesty Taco/Chipotle Ranch, Habanero/Guacamole, Cheesy Enchilada/Sour Cream, and Pizza Cravers/Ranch.  Then there were Taco Bell and Pizza Hut flavors. And yes, I am using Wikipedia right now. Then there was the mystery flavor bags, and those were the most disgusting flavor...cheeseburger.  I guessed that correctly, but yuck they were gross! The next year they did another mystery flavor, which I never had... it was Mountain Dew. (Dammit! I want to try them even though I know I'll hate them.) Then they released Late Night Flavors like jalepeno poppers. There have also been lots of other flavors beyond the originals like Spicy Nacho, Guacamole, White Nacho Cheese, and the weirdest of them all, Spicy Sweet Chili, in the purple bag. They taste like you are eating a flavor packet from ramen.

And finally, the most recent Dorito flavors, the burn series.  1st Degree Burn: Blazin' Jalapeno, 2nd Degree Burn: Fiery Buffalo and 3rd Degree Burn: Scorchin' Habenero. The most interesting thing about these new flavors is that they have a special pepsi paired with them, Pepsi Max Cease Fire, which is supposed to cool your mouth after you eat the burning hot Doritos. I tried these, of course, except I haven't been able to find 3rd degree burn anywhere. But, I tried the 1st and 2nd degree burn with the soda, and they are kind of good and bad. The chips taste alright, but they are pretty hot. Amazingly, the Pepsi really does cool your mouth. It is lime flavored and tastes alright, but I don't really like Pepsi or really drink soda very often, so I didn't think it was that great, but it works. I guess if you really really liked the flavor of the chips, you would like the combo. I kind of hope it works on any sort of hot, and I don't see why it wouldn't. There are plenty of things I like the taste of but am limited by how much heat I can take. I've had watery eyes and a runny nose while eating my favorite Indian and Thai curries countless times. I'm thinking now that maybe I should keep a bottle of this soda on hand just in case I add too much Sriracha to my food. At the end of the day, I've come back to the same conclusion as I always knew: I don't really like Doritos of any flavor.

Every now and then I discover something I really like from trying endless new products (Take 5 bar anyone?), but mostly I try things once and then never again. It seems that candy and snacks are the things to most often come out with new flavors, and as I age (ugh!) I buy and eat less junk food (or at least try to). I kind of hope this new flavor trend in junk food ends soon, and it will be that much easier for me to avoid junk food... or at least waste the calories on junk I KNOW I like.

I take it back

Quick note. I am watching last night's episode of The Marriage Ref, and I take back some of my good comments. They had Kathy Griffin on the celebrity panel, and I loathe her. She is the devil, not Jerry. Her voice irritates me, and I can't stand to look at her face. She was recently on an episode of Law and Order SVU where she played a very unlikable leader of a lesbian group, who turned out to be straight, and the lesbians and the straight people hated her. Even the other characters on the shows she's on hate her character. I stand by what I said earlier though, the show will be good as long as the celebrity panel is good and they continue getting funny married couples. In this episode, the married couples were actually kind of funny and definitely funnier than Kathy Griffin. Tracy Morgan was on the panel, and he was funny in a Tracy Morgan sort of way. I could see this show going downhill soon though when the novelty wears off and no one good wants to be on the show anymore. I can see this going the same route as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, moving to daytime at some point.

TV TV TV!

(House is probably my favorite show)

I'm back. Sorry for the little break from blogging, but I've been really busy lately with all sorts of things to do and issues clogging and fogging up my brain. Luckily I have TV to numb my brain temporarily or at least to have on in the background to make mindless tasks more enjoyable. So, I thought I would write about the many, and I mean many, shows I watch. Thanks to tivo/dvr I can watch like 5 primetime shows on some nights in a lot less time because I can fast forward through the commercials and about 90% of American Idol and Biggest Loser.

I used to be embarrassed by how much TV I watch, thinking that TV=couch potato, but I'm fairly active, I read and am often productively responding to emails and blogging while enjoying my favorite primetime dramas. (I also addictively play internet backgammon and go on facebook for no reason while watching TV, but that's multitasking too!) So what if it's melting my brain - I think I'm smarter than the average bear, so a little rotting of the brain isn't going to kill me right? I'm not even embarrassed to say that I have so many shows to watch on Tuesdays that I have to download one because there are 3 shows on at the same time. So here's the rundown of the shows I generally watch:

• Mondays: How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, House, Law & Order 
• Tuesdays: American Idol, Biggest Loser, Lost, 90210, Parenthood
• Wednesdays: Modern Family, American Idol, SVU, Top Chef/Masters, ANTM (sometimes)
• Thursday: Survivor, Project Runway & Models of the Runway, The Marriage Ref
• Sunday: Celebrity Apprentice

I also watch Jeopardy when I am home and remember, The Soup, The Hills when it's on and my guiltiest pleasure... I recently started dvring Days of Our Lives again, but I think that will have to stop soon. Holy crap I watch a lot of TV. Now some of those shows are not on for that long during the year, especially the reality shows and all of the shows are not on during the summer. So even though it is a lot of time, I'm just not ashamed. Here are a couple more rationalizations anyway: I watch all the shows recorded, so it takes a lot less time; this is my last season watching American Idol, The Hills and Lost; Project Runway, Top Chef and Celebrity Apprentice are hardly every on. Whoa, I what do I do with all that extra time in the summer and when shows take winter breaks? I can't even remember... maybe I socialize.

A few of the show I watch are fairly new. Here are my thoughts on them.

Modern Family is just about the funniest show I've ever seen. First of all, one of the stars is Al Bundy. Who knew he could be so funny? Second, it stars Sofia Vergara, who is just about as ideal a person as I can think of. So the jist of the show is that it follows 3 families, which are actually one family. Al Bundy is the patriarch, re-married to a Columbian women much younger than him who has a son around the age of his grandkids. He also has 2 biological kids, who are grown up, married/partnered with their own kids and live in the same town. I want everyone to watch this show so badly that I won't write more... yet. Download the episodes, watch it on hulu, whatever. Just watch it! You'll be laughing out loud, and that's a promise.

Parenthood is about a guy played by Craig T. Nelson, (you know Coach) who has a wife and kids who are all grown up with their own families and all live in he same town. Sound familiar? This show is basically the one-hour drama version of Modern Family, a not that funny Modern Family. It has it's funny moments and is entertain in general. I'm still not sold on it entirely, but it didn't start until after the Olympics, so I'm giving it a shot for this season. One of Coach's kids is Lauren Graham, who plays a single mom just like she did in Gilmore Girls (my favorite show of all time). Sidenote - has anyone seen Lauren Graham in any sort of interview or award ceremony? She is a complete spazz, unable to read a teleprompter and kind of annoying. The jury is still out on this show. Since it doesn't conflict with any other show, it's staying on my list for now.

The Marriage Ref is a new show by Jerry Seinfeld where a panel of 3 celebrities discuss issues that specific married couples are having and bring to the show, and the host (or ref) listens to their thoughts and then decides in favor of the husband or wife. The tiffs between spouses have been things like: should a husband be allowed to keep is stuffed dead dog in foyer, should a wife be allowed to floss in bed, and can a wife keep a formal dining room that no one can go into except for Thanksgiving. The problems run from mundane to gross to crazy. So far, the show has been really funny. The couples have been interesting people with interesting problems. The panel of celebrities have been funny. My favorite trio of celebrities so far has been Kelly Ripa, Alec Baldwin and Jerry Seinfeld. The three of them have been on together twice so far, I think. I was most surprised that Kirstie Alley was at times funny instead of being horrible the whole time like I expected. Ricky Gervais was another one of my favs. So as long as they continue to find funny couples with funny problems and funny celebrities, this show should continue to be entertaining.

So those are my thoughts on TV for now. I am sure I will write more in the future. Surely there will be rants on Lost and the disappointing contestants on American Idol and much more. When you watch as much TV as I do, you're bound to have a lot to say about it.

VFF UPDATE: Feeling good with my 3 mile or so runs. I feel completely used to running in them, having had them for 2 weeks or so. I haven't had any toe issues or anything like that.  All in all, my feet and legs feel better than with regular shoes. I'm tempted to put on my Nikes and go for a run to see what it feels like again. I am also starting a new training program that is has some Fartlek integrated (speedwork), so wish me luck with that!

A Blissful Run

Back to VFFs. I went running last night around 8, in my VFFs of course, and it was AWESOME! It was just that perfect run when all the conditions add up just right for an altogether pleasant experience. The temperature was 65 degrees with a slight breeze. My legs felt rested. I admittedly went a little slower than usual to try and focus on posture and how my feet were landing. Every step felt great though. I stood much more straight up than I have been. I think you are supposed to have a slight lean forward to run the way I want to, but as sloppily and slanted as I was running, it felt like I was standing up straight even though I had a slight lean.

By the time my little Nike+ man told me I had reached my halfway point I almost felt as if I had just started. Now I don't know if I am just getting in better shape or what, but I have been feeling a lot better running with VFFs, and it can't just be all coincidence. It makes sense too - you run more efficiently barefoot or close to barefoot because rather than completely stopping the forward motion upon each impact when you heelstrike in regular shoes, you land midfoot and you propel forward a little. (If this doesn't make sense to you, go back a couple posts and watch that video on barefoot running.) More efficient running means it should be easier, and it is. I hardly feel out of breath unless I really push the speed and even then, it's just out of breath, not that I'm going to collapse, heart-pounding sort of out of breath. On the other hand, my calves hurt a lot more. But if you are like me and love the burn when you work out, it's a good feeling, like I know my muscles are working. Back to the benefits of VFF running, my shins have not hurt at all and neither have my knees.

I have also been able to move down hills a bit faster. It's still not that gliding feeling that you get with regular shoes, but I've been moving more confidently and certainly quicker downhill. If anyone has tips on running downhill barefoot or in VFFs, please leave a comment. Uphill is still just so good. There is this one long hill on the path where I run, and if you are starting at Locust St and run north, by the time you get to the top of the hill it is about a mile, and it used to annoy me when I got to it. It's not very steep, but kind of long on this almost otherwise flat path. I noticed last night that I didn't even realize when I started up it. After I turned around, there is shorter, steeper uphill, and it feels so good to power up it. So uphill - good, downhill - getting better.

When I finished my run I felt like I could have gone on another. If it wasn't so dark I think I might have kept going. My favorite part about the run was that there almost no one on the path. I was out by the Schuylkill River Trail earlier that day to eat some bread, grapes and cheese and take a nap in the sun, and it was a disaster out there- tons of people running, walking and biking and just enough people haphazardly walking their dogs or toddlers and inconsiderate people strolling 3 or 4 wide to muddy it all up. I don't have anything against people moving any speed they like out there. I'm no Abebe Bikila, and think it's great that people are being active and out there at all. It is a nice place and I go out there to walk sometimes too. Everyone should be considerate of the others though, whether you're running or walking or biking. Please don't walk 3 people wide if the path is busy. Don't walk your dog without a leash if it's amazingly well-trained and will stay with you. When I'm walking home from a run with Ryan, we often walk single file when it gets busy and guess what? We can still talk to each other and be in eachother's company without taking up half the path. That goes for runners and bikers too. There is one thing I don't like though and that is rollerbladers. I don't want to discriminate, and I know that it might be one of the few places in the city that you can rollerblade, but it just takes up a lot of room. I kind of feel like people should just stop rollerblading all together. I sort of thought they had stopped some time in the 90s, but I guess there are a few stragglers.

Ok I think I am going to eat ice cream for brunch now. Next time look forward to some non-running related topics.

OOOHHHH MY GOOOOODNESS... The April Fools Prevail!

I know I'm trying to write about new things I try, and I've been talking about VFFs while I am still in transition and will continue to write about them, but I tried something else new tonight: WINNING QUIZZO! I'm still beaming with pride over it. Quizzo (also known as pub quiz) is lame, and I know it is so so lame that I so happy about coming in 1st place (yay!), but it's been a long wait and road to get there.

So I can't remember how it started, but my friends and I started going to Johnny Goodtimes Quizzo some time while we were in law school (maybe 3 or 4 years ago). It has been, at times, intense. There have been fights over team names, picking teams when we had to field 2 teams and of course over the right answer. Questions of morality have been raised, feelings have been hurt and being the douchebag law students-turned lawyers that we are, we have at times been a tad intense and serious about quizzo. That said, we have never been serious enough to "train" or study trivia or recruit quizzo superstars to join our team. We never cheat with our cell phones (except for once when some outsider was on our team, looked up the answer on his iphone and got it wrong - talk about instant karma). Some teams do some or all of those things though, and competition is tough at Johnny's quizzos (he runs like 5 regular quizzos a week at different bars). There is the favorite team or two to win at each quizzo. The top 3 teams at each quizzo win a GC to the bar they're at, so it's pretty cool if you can win.

Now my friends are in general pretty intelligent people, but quizzo isn't just about intelligece, it's about trivia. So someone can be pretty smart, but might be bad at trivia. You seem to need to have a collectively broad spectrum of trivia knowledge to always do well in quizzo. Just like trivial pursuit. I can answer the blue and green questions forever, and maybe even some orange and yellow, but I'm not going to win without a partner whose got a handle on pink and brown. (click here in case you can't remember.) So we are all fairly smart people, but collectively we weren't a trivia powerhouse. So in the past we probably could have counted on getting 6th or 7th place, solidly in the middle of the pack, with a 2nd place or 3rd place here or there when we happened to get a lucky topic some of us knew about. One amazing day when Ryan and I weren't there, our friends came in 1st. But overall, it was social, fun thing for us to do on Thursday nights since we certainly weren't favorites to win. I actually used to hate quizzo when we started because I hated losing, but at some point I lowered the bar and only expected to come in somewhere in the middle and started liking it a lot.

After law school, team members started moving away or their work schedules didn't allow for them to stay at a bar in center city past midnight on a weeknight, so we stopped going to quizzo. But, maybe a couple months ago a few of us were free and in the area and decided to go, and we got 2nd place! Pumped and enthused by what would have been a big deal to us before, we went again the next week and got 2nd place again! We haven't made it to quizzo every week since then, but we've been there pretty regularly, and I think we came in 2nd place every time except for once, plus tonight when we came in 1st! The team we beat almost always wins and was winning back when we were in law school coming in 6th place every week.

So when Johnny read the scores, and he read the 3rd place team and our team hadn't been called yet, I just assumed we would come in 2nd as usual. And when he called our team name, "The April Fools," as the winners, the 5 us (two of whom I should mention are not and have never been lawyers or law students) threw our hands in the air and cheered as loudly and happily as when the Giants beat the Patriots in the superbowl a couple years ago. My hands were actually shaking, and I had trouble texting past members of our team to let them know of our victory. Within minutes we had pictures of our $40 GC on facebook.

It's all so so so geeky. I know that it is, and I hate myself a little for being so happy about this, but it's just one of those things that feels good with no bad feelings attached. The kind of happy you get when you're a kid when good news doesn't come with a downside too, like it often seems to now. For example, you graduate law school - yay... except you don't have a job and the bar exam is looming over your head. Or, yay you get a promotion... but now you have all this extra work and no time for quizzo. This was high-fiving, smiling from ear-to-ear, hoot and hollering kind of happy, and it just felt good.

So congratulations to Ryan, Parveen, Todd, Elana and myself!

For you VFF junkies out there, I did wear them yesterday for a full, very long day of a lot of walking and standing, and my feet didn't hurt at all like they probably would have in regular shoes, but my calves were really tired at the end of the day, which I have never felt before just from standing and walking around.